Farewell Omaha

Well, I'm just waking up after rolling into Michigan with the sun coming up this morning.  If my grammar is off or I end any sentences with a half finished thought, that's going to be par for the course I'm afraid.

I'll skip most of the stuff I covered in other entries here and just do the stuff that I thought was interesting.

The track was a very similar surface to ours and looked a lot like our old track at BFG with a little more banking.  They kept the track wet, which Arnie indicated was the way that Street Tracs like to run without wear.  Arnie did a good little piece on track prep during his seminar later in the evening.  Wet track is great for rubber tires like Street Tracs and keeps the wear down.  As a track dries out, it becomes more abrasive and starts to put down rubber.  This leads to the Blue/Black groove conditions where foam tires are really the preference.  The way I relate that back to our racing is that if we want to move towards foams, we might have to change our watering strategy a little at BFG.  It's not my track or my call, just saying that's what the CW guys were saying.  For purposes of this race, they intentionally kept the water on it, which was good for me because that's the way I've always run better.

The chasis seminar from Nathan Dean and Arnie Fie was very informational.  They covered a lot more ground than the previous session that I attended out at Dukes.  Everything from hub carrier adjustments to why you do just about every adjustment on the car was covered.  I have several pages of notes that I'm going to distill and put together in a series of blog entries that, hopefully, will spread that knowledge out a little more to all of the racers that read this blog.

Butch had a pretty good Late Model, much better than mine and he managed to qualify for the B main.  Not bad when you consider they were running an E main and the A was populated by Team drivers and National Champions.  I had horrible qualifying efforts and ended up in the D main for LM.  I won the D, but was taken out a few times in the C and could only manage 3rd of 8 so my run ended there.  In the end, I just couldn't get the looseness out of my car without tightening it up too much on entry.

On the ride home,  I think I got something figured out.   Earlier in the day, I had moved the hub spacers forward in the front of my Rocket to get more turn in before I went back to a stock setup. After listening to the chasis seminar, it makes me think that that's where my problem was. A day late and a dollar short on that one.

In Mod Sprint, both Butch and I were WAY underpowered, but I think that actually resulted in better finishes for both of us because a lot of racers just couldn't get a handle on their bigger motors.  I went to a 10.5 and Butch stayed with 13.5 so we were really better off rolling the corners than the guys running 5.5's and 7.5's.  Butch qualified for the C and transferred to the B with a solid run.  I made the B, qualifying 9th of 30 or so Sprint cars so I thought that was pretty solid.  I think I had a car capable of transferring to the A if I didn't get taken out three times in the B.  Like I said, there were guys out there with a lot more motor then skill.  It might be a lesson for all of us back at BFG.

In the end, it's probably a good thing that I didn't make the A because there were a few guys that could in fact, put the power down as it were.  The top guys were in the 50-51 lap range where I was running a 48 lap pace at times and ending with 47's for the most part.  My fast laps were somewhere around four tenths off of TQ pace, so it wouldn't have been very much fun moving over every lap for the fast guys.

Street Stocks were a riot to watch.  They use buggies with 21.5 motors so the speeds were a little slower, but the racing was side by side all the way around the track.  Very cool class for guys that don't want to spend a ton of money or time on their rides.   The PA Nitro tour in Pennsylvania gets 20-30 a night from what I hear because it's very accessible for the average RC person.  I would be very interested if something like that took off at BFG.  13.5 is too much motor IMO for the track.

13.5 seems to be blinky every where we go now.  It keeps the playing field a little more level, although the fast guys are always running up front no matter what you do.  As much as it pains me to say this (since I love my boost), it wouldn't be a bad idea to consider going that route at BFG to keep things simple.

The tech table was very nice.  It was basically a box with the diameter of the car measured to spec.  If it rolled through and met the length requirements, it was good.  If not, it wasn't.   These are done out of plexiglass with a laser cutter. The guy that does them, charges $250, which is probably a decent enough deal (as long as it wasn't my money).  If we wanted to start doing some self tech, we would just need someone that's good measuring and cutting to put some template jigs together out of whatever material we could find.

The way they ran tech is that they only teched the top three from every round.  If you failed tech, you lost that round of qualifying.  During the mains, everyone had their batteries checked for voltage, then the two transfers went to tech before they could advance.  One local racer got DQ'd for not having his speedo in blinky mode.  He was pretty salty about it, but the tech guy and the tech table were up there all weekend for people to check their stuff.  I had to trim my wing  on my sprint car because I hadn't cut it right to the inside of the little lines when I cut it out of the kit.  It wasn't really an advantage having an extra 1/32nd of an inch of lexan out there.  Butch had to move a wing brace position which also gave him no real advantage.  Rules is rules thought I guess.  The downside is something to think about before considering getting serious about DODC rules.  Personally, I'm a fan since I'm not the one who's going to have to deal with the disgruntled racer when he gets popped for unintentionally missing the spec on something.  The tech guy is not going to be a very popular person.  The one we had was really nice and very anal, which is probably what you want.  He made no bones about what the rules were and had a copy of them right there if you wanted to dispute them.

Speaking of rules, there were some changes to DODC implemented recently that are worth noting. The spoiler in the back of Late Models was reduced to 2.5 inches.  I never did have mine to 2.75 since I thought it looked dorky so it really didn't effect me.  The EDM cars have different templates too.  Basically the same without the crazy billboard side panels.  There was also talk that ROAR might un-approve the new D3.5 motors that everyone is using.  They were allowed for this race because there was no notification of the change before the race.  Butch pulled his out because he didn't like it, borrowed an older Thunder Power motor from Rob Mulvaney and his car took off.  It's a crazy world and like the song goes "all that is gold does not glitter" (I'm aware that the Led Zeppelin variant is different).  It's dirt where turning and handling are typcially more important that horsepower.

The secondary class out there besides Street Stock is the BMod class.  It's basically a spec body from stalker that actually looks like an EDM like we see in the midwest draped over a buggy chasis.  Pretty cool looking, although I'm not sure what purpose it serves in the classes since Street Stock is about the same thing with bumpers.  I guess it's a matter of whether or not you're more of an open wheel fan.

All in all, a great trip.  I would definitely go back to Omaha.  As soon as I can get my setup notes put together from the chasis seminar, I'm going to start posting them here.  Probably sometime next week.

Hope to see you all at the track soon......

Round One Update

I didn't have a great first heat in Late Model, but my Rocket was only a tenth or so off of the team drivers fast times so I count that as a win.  I qualified 11th out of thirty or so 13.5's.  If you discount the pros running SE3's, I'm in the hunt.  I'm going check with Armies to see if there's a plaque for that :)

My Sprint was woefully underpowered running a 13.5.  I'm guessing that it will still be the case running 10.5.  Most are running 7.5's.

Butch is doing alright.  His LM looks great.  He swapped out his new motor for an older one with more smoke.

Custom Works Team drivers

Practice Day

Well, we won the race to get to the track this morning.  Central time really makes it a lot easier to get up in the morning :)

The track is a lot like the old flat track at BFG.  Perfect track for street tracs.

I think just about every CW driver is here including the DODC national champion so I'm hoping to pick some brains and learn some stuff this weekend.  The main thing I'm trying to figure out is how to get the slop out of the bell crank steering.

So far, I've only had the LM out there and it was pretty good but not super fast.  The CW team guys are on 7.5's.

Learned a lot at the seminar. DODC national champ Nathan Dean explained a ton about car physics, kickups, wheelbase, and

Arrival at the Hobbyplex

Butch and I just rolled into Omaha for the Custom Works Rubber Tire Challenge this weekend at a place called the Hobbyplex.  CW is giving away a free set of tires (front and back) with every entry.  It would be like making money if it wasn't 650 miles away :)

This place is Friggin huge!!   Hobby shop is the size of a grocery store.  They have a carpet inroad/oval and a separate purpose built dirt building for offroad and oval that must have cost 500k to build.  This place is a palace.  Biggest I've ever seen.

Practice starts tomorrow morning.  Expecting to see a lot of heavy hitters from all over.  Texas, iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and North Carolina.  Hoping to learn some stuff.

I'll be posting pictures and news all weekend so check back if you want to check them out.

First Indoor Race On The New BFG Dirt Oval

Ok, for anyone that didn't make it out to the first race on the new track, here's the report from my perspective (aka my version of the truth) :

The track is officially ready to race on.   It's not perfectly smooth, but it's pretty good and it is really fast and I mean really fast, maybe too fast.  The banking and the fresh track surface put the fastest laps of the night in the sub four second range.  I'm certain that the numbers are going to get down around the mid threes as soon as we get the track dialed in.  

It was great to see a nice crowd out for the first race of the year.  In years past, the first race is usually pretty sparse until the weather really turns sour.  There was a heat of street stocks, a full heat of mod sprints and three heats of late models.   

The other thing that was sort of cool and different was the spectators.  There were probably more spectators last night than I've ever seen at BFG.  The new layout is very conducive to watching, so it was kind of nice.  Most were offroad guys checking out some oval action.  There were also a couple of folks just plain interested too.  A few are talking like they might pick up a Sprint car or convert a buggy into a Late Model to get in on the action.  That would be awesome for sure.  

Be on the lookout for new racers.  Go out of your way if you can to: A) give them some help getting set up and B) Cut them some slack on the race track.  We are known for courteous driving, but I know that sometimes we get locked into getting that last tenth out of every lap.  I know that I personally would be better off most of the time if I exercised a little more patience.  It should be easier to get out of the way on this track, although the closing speeds and speed in general is really fast right now.  It's not always easy to see someone coming and get out of the way in time.

The racing was a little rough, mostly due to people figuring out the new track and I think the inside wall had something to do with some of the carnage that happened in the earlier heats.  It seemed like any time someone caught the inside wall, it would collect at least one other car coming through the turn.  There were a few that ended up like Talladega where everyone pretty much got collected.  

The other thing that I think happened was that everyone was trying out new stuff and no one was really sure how far they could push the traction on this new surface.  I know I went over the line a few times and found myself turned around.  Then again, how do you know where the line is if you never cross it?   By the main, Sprint cars were playing pretty nicely and at least Mike Renniger got off a solid run.

Wish I would have stuck around for the late model mains.  The B main was looking like it was pretty action packed when I was walking out :)

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe my Sprint car might have been the first one launched off of the track into the grandstands when bahr punted me (inadvertently I think) at the end of the front stretch.  It was a good thing we had all of those spectators to catch it or I probably would have been building a new wing this afternoon.

Overall, I had a good time and it's clear that we all have a lot to learn about the new track conditions.  I'm pouring over my notes from my flat track set up to figure out what to do to really get flying around this new banked high bite track.  Without giving away too many secrets (not that I have any secrets, anyone can grab my car and check out my setup any time they want), I'm thinking that I need to do some additional testing on foam tires, possibly lighten up my shock oil and stiffen my springs in my setup.  I'm pretty sure we could jack more of the weight to the left side of our vehicles as well, but that's going to take some time to find the right balance on that.

My plan is to hit the new and improved practice hours on Sundays, Thursdays, and Friday nights to try and get a handle on things.  I'm willing to bet I'm going to see a few others there doing the same for the next few weeks anyway.

If you haven't gotten out to BFG, you should give it a try.  Plenty of practice nights now to get your stuff ready and I was back in Kalamazoo last night by 10pm which might be a record for me getting back from any RC racing.  

Until next week, later.....

Ah, The Smell of Dirt.....Indoors!!!

Every Labor Day, it feels like we can keep racing outdoors forever in Michigan  The sun is still shining, the water is warm and the windows stay open in my house all night long.  And every year like clockwork, the nights start to cool down, the weather becomes dodgy immediately afterwards.

Just when you think you have something figured out for the raceplex, Duke closes up shop and sends us packing.   If he wasn't such an awesome guy, you'd think he had it in for us dirt racers cutting us off like that.  I can't wait until next year out there.

Anyway, the weather in Michigan is what it is and fortunately for the RC Dirt Oval scene BFG has stepped up and built a new indoor track in it's facility at the Rivertown Sports Complex.

The new track is completely separate from the the offroad track now which should work out great for fans of both sides of the hobby since practice will be open now on any night that the facility is open instead of a single night during the week.

The track itself has much the same measurements as the old track at roughly 60 x 40 feet.  The primary difference is going to be that the new track has some decent banking on it.  I'll admit, Geometry class came right after lunch when I was in high school, so I may have missed the lecture where they told me how to figure out angles, but I did Google it and if my math is correct, the banking is somewhere around 18-19 degrees.  If you want more specifics, the wall is about two feet high and the dirt comes up to about 6 inches from the top so that's how high the banking is.

(Sorry for the quality of the pics.  Not sure what happened on that)

Chris has been working his ass off at the track for the last couple of weeks to get the track to where it is now.  Moving, leveling, tamping, dragging, picking rocks, leveling again, tamping again, dragging again.....   You get the picture.  If you see him, you should thank him and think twice before you offer too many suggestions for the new track since he, John, and a very few others did all of the work.

In my opinion, the track is turning out great.  The surface is already good enough to run on.  It's a little rough for foams or slicks, but I've definitely raced on worse.  If I was to compare it to another surface, it's probably right about where Stateline was when I visited there this spring.  Good, racey, but not perfect.  I'm told the plan is to roll it some more, run it in, rinse and repeat until perfect.  It's going to be awhile before it's where they say that they want to get it to.  If they do get it that smooth, look out.   This could be one of the best indoor facilities within striking distance.

Here's a video of Chris running his Custom Works GBX3 on the new track.  To be fair, the part where he runs into the wall is obstructed by a tractor in the video.

I'm looking forward to racing there this winter.

I'm also hoping to travel again this winter.  I think that's one of the most enjoyable things about this hobby.  Meeting new people and racing against some of the best racers in the country has really helped me in my racing.  Any time I've seen the Custom Works guys, they have been more than willing to answer questions and help me out.

With that in mind, the first trip of the year is going to either be to Monee in two weeks for the fall roundup or out to Omaha for a rubber tire race where CW is giving away a free set of tires with every entry that same weekend.  My preference would be to go to Omaha since I've never been there, but work may get in the way of taking the two days off that would be required to travel that far.   

Monee wouldn't be a bad deal either though.  They tell me that the fall roundup is the longest running dirt oval race in the country and that place is awesome.  I love that track!

I've got this thing on my phone where I can post pictures directly to this blog, so if I do travel, I'll be able to upload pics here instead of trying to navigate through the painful process of trying to get pics up on Hobbytalk.